Most modern computer applications use a graphical user interface (GUI) as a basic element of their functionality. A typical GUI system has objects and/or text that are represented within one or more defined areas of the screen, often referred to as windows, and that are capable of displaying images, text, controls, animations, videos or any combination thereof. The constituent objects that comprise a GUI window may be separated into two general categories. The first category includes menu buttons, operation buttons, images, and other objects that typically convey the same information regardless of the size at which they are rendered. The size of these static information objects may effect how well their information is conveyed (buttons may be hard to read, for example, if they are made too small), but making these objects larger does not generally create an opportunity to increase the information conveyed. The second category includes objects, such as dialog boxes or text blocks, that may convey different amounts of information depending on their size. The size of these dynamic information objects does, therefore, effect the amount of information conveyed. For example, a dialog box that is twice as large, for example, may convey twice as many dialog lines.
When a typical GUI is displayed on a computer screen, two important and interconnected parameters of the resulting window are physical size and resolution. The window's physical size is the actual width and height of the rendered window. For example, an application window may measure three inches in height and five inches in width when rendered on the computer display. That physical size is rendered in a particular resolution which typically depends on the resolution of the computer display. In a typical 15 inch monitor running a Super Video Graphics Array (SVGA) resolution of 800 pixels by 600 pixels, a single pixel generally has a representative width of approximately 0.015 inches. Therefore, in order to display the application window that has a width of five inches, the computer display uses approximately 333 pixels.
Most display monitors use one of several different display resolutions. In monitors 15 inch and smaller, the display resolution may generally be VGA (640×480) or SVGA (800×600). Monitors that are 17 inch and larger may generally have resolutions at Extended Graphics Array (XGA) (1024×768), Super XGA (SXGA) (1280×1024), or higher. However, modern display drivers may allow a 15 inch monitor to render a resolution of 1024×768 or higher. Therefore, the size of the monitor and its display resolution are not a static ratio. Because of the possibilities of having different display sizes coupled with different resolutions, application designers typically design and code applications to produce a GUI that is optimal for one of the standard display sizes and resolutions. For example, an application developer may design an application window to render at 10 inches in width and 10 inches in height on a 15 inch monitor operating at an 800×600 resolution. When rendered, the 10 inch width will be represented in approximately 666 pixels across a 15 inch, SVGA monitor.
It should be noted that, in practice, an application developer may design based on the whole number of pixels instead of the whole number of inches. For example, a designer may design a window or application interface to be 550 pixels in width and 400 pixels in height. That may produce a window that is 8.25 inches in a 15 inch, SVGA monitor.
Because there are other display sizes and resolutions, an application GUI that has been designed with an optimal size in mind may result in different sizes on different display monitors. For example, the 10 inch width of application window mentioned above may render as a 7.33 inch width on a 17 inch monitor operating at a resolution of 1024×768. The application is still rendered using 666 pixels; however, in the larger monitor with the higher resolution, the pixel width is smaller, thus, producing a smaller overall width size. Moreover, along with the overall decrease in the width of the rendered window, each of the constituent elements within the window are also scaled down according to the difference between the sizes of the pixels. The result may produce an application window and GUI that is more difficult to read on a larger monitor with a higher resolution. Conversely, in a smaller monitor with a lower resolution, the application window may render larger than the designed 10 inches; possibly exceeding the size limits of the monitor.
Some application designers have designed application GUIs to automatically scale the window size according to the monitor size and resolution. In larger monitors, these applications scale the resolution of the application interface up to accommodate the decrease in the pixel size. For example, the 666 pixel width of the designed 10 inch application window may be scaled up to approximately 909 pixels in a 17 inch monitor operating at 1024×768. The scaled application window would then be displayed at approximately 10 inches in width, just as in the original display size. While the window maintains the same physical size as the originally designed window, each of the constituent elements, both static and dynamic information elements, are also simply scaled larger. Thus, while the constituent elements may be maintained at a relative size, the buttons, text, or images may actually appear oversized on the larger display.
Conversely, in accommodating the smaller-sized, lower-resolution monitor, the application window and accompanying elements would be scaled smaller. These smaller displays could be a very small display, such as on a personal digital assistant (PDA). Moving a GUI to the smaller displays typically attempts to maintain the entire application window on the screen. Therefore, the application would typically scale the application window and each of its constituent elements to fit onto the smaller display size. The resulting application GUI would have a small application window with each constituent element, both static and dynamic elements, also scaled smaller. However, if the display size is too small, it may become very difficult, if not impossible, to read.
Window resizing that is based on the resolution of the various computer displays is quite different than window resizing that occurs within the same resolution. For as long as GUI interfaces have existed, there has been the ability for the user to selectively resize the window within the interface window to suit the desire and tastes of the user. One method that has been used in same-resolution window resizing, is to maintain the size and relationship of each element within the window. Therefore, if the display window is too small to show each of the elements, scroll bars are provided to move the display window to see the elements. In this method, each of the constituent elements are maintained at the same size and with the same relationship to each other. Other methods maintain some elements, but then adjust others to accommodate the movement or sizing of the window. Some methods, such as those used in interactive multimedia environments like MACROMEDIA INC.'s, MACROMEDIA FLASH™, maintain the size of the window's constituent elements, but adjust the whitespace between the elements. Still other methods may even combine these methods. However, each of these methods accommodates resizing of application windows and window elements in a single resolution.